Shear



Sept. 10, l935.'- A 'D. EVANS 2,014,248

I I SHEAR Filed Dec. 21 1955 I. 4 Sheets-Sheet l Sept. 10, 1935. D'EVANS 2,014,248

SHEAR Filed Dec. 21, 1953 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 se t.'10, 193s. A D EVANS 2,014,248

' v SHEAR Filed Dec. 21, 1933 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 ZZ Z0 INVENTOR A.,D. EVANS Se t. 10, 1935.

L SHEAR 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Dep. 21, 1955 INVENTOR fas Patented Sept. 10, 1935 SHEAR Archibald D. Evans, Warren, Ohio, assignor to The Wean Engineering Company, Incorporated, Warren, hio, a corporation of Ohio Application December 21, 1933, Serial No. 103,475

4 Claims. (01. 164-450) I My invention relates to the art of rolling metal in strip form'and, in particular, to a shear for trimming the edges of a strip at various stages in the rolling process.

Certain features of the present disclosure are also described and claimed in my U. S. Patent No.

1,985,856, granted December 25, 1934, for shears. According to the present practice of making thin material, hot rolled strip about .1" thick is cold rolled to the desired final gauge in long lengths. One method of rolling involves the use of a single stand of rolls and the passage of the material back and forth through such stand the required number .of times to produce the desired finished gauge. In the manufacture of strip according to this method, it is found that the hot rolled strip is characterized by edge defects of various kinds which it is desirable to remove before cold.

rolling. After the completion of the cold rolling, furthermore, the product does not have prefectly straight edges and it is, therefore, desirable to perform a finishing edge-trimming operation. My invention provides an apparatus for performing the necessary edge trimming operations in the cold rolling of strip metal with the utmost ease and accuracy. In accordance with my invention, I provide a pair of housings slidable along a suitable supporting base. Each housing is provided with spindles carrying cooperating disc shears for removing an edge of a long strip. The housings are adjustable toward and from each other and a common drive for the spindles in both housings is provided.

The invention alsoincludes means for diverting from the path of the strip being sheared, the edge portion which has been removed therefrom, and the chopping of such edge ribbon into a plurality of short pieces which can be readily handled. The shears for chopping the edge ribbons are mounted on the housings supporting the trimming ,shears and in alinement with the latter; A common drive is provided for the chopping shears. Entrance and exit pinch rolls aid in feeding the material to and through the shear. The pinch rolls are driven from the same power source as the edge trimming shears and are geared to rotate at the same peripheral speed as the latter. The pinch roll and'edge trimmer drive, however, includes a slip clutch so that the material is not subjected to excessive stress in case it is pulled through the shear at.a speed greater than the peripheral speed of the pinch rolls and edge trimming discs.

For a complete understanding of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings shear spindle 20 having a disc cutter 2| thereon illustrating apresent preferred embodiment. In the drawings: c Figure 1 is av plan view showing the shear associated with apparatus for feeding material to and pulling it through the shear; 5 Figure 2 is a sectional view substantially along the line II-II of Figure 1 showing in elevation parts illustrated diagrammatically therein;

Figure 3 is a side elevation with the pinch rolls removed;

Figure 4 is a side view of one of the shear housings from the inside, to enlarged scale;

Figure 5 is a partial plan view showing the shear cutters and guides;

Figure 6 is a partial sectional view along the line VI-VI of Figure 4, certain parts being rotated into the plane of section for the sake of clearness;

Figure 7 is a side elevation of a cutter holder; and

Figure 8 is a longitudinal section therethrough along the line VIII--VIII of Figure 7.

In the manufacture of thin, cold rolled strip, the hot rolledfistrip is usually-wound in loose coils. The cold rolling of strip is usually effected while the material is subjected to considerable tension. For this reason, the coil of strip entering the cold mill must be wound tightly since otherwise it would be impossible to maintain-a uniform tension thereon. It is customary, therefore, to wind the loosely coiled hot strip into a tightly wrapped coil on a mandrel adapted to be supported adjacent the mill for feeding the tightly wound strip thereto. I take advantage of the operation of winding the loosely coiled hot strip tightly on a mill mandrel to remove the defective edge portions of the strip. For this purpose, I employ a shear 'lll located between the loosely wound coil ll of hot strip and a mandrel l2 adapted to be driven by any convenient means for winding the hot strip thereon in a tight coil. The shear l0 comprises a base l3 having shear housings l4 and I5 slidable therealong, as well as entrance and exit pinch rolls l6 and I! on opposite sides of the shear housings. In each of the housings I 4 and I5 is journaled a spindle l8 mounted therein in fixed bearings. The spindles l8 have cutting discs l9 attached thereto. Each of the housings is further provided with a.

cooperating with the cutter l9. Adjusting wedges 22 and 23 are provided for properly positioning the spindle 20 relative to the spindle l8.

The spindles I-8 and are driven from a main 5 power shaft 24 through back gears 25, the lower one of which meshes with a pinion 23 on the shaft 24. The back gears mesh with gears 21 on the spindles. The shaft 24 is,driven by a motor 28. The motor is connected to the shaft through a pinion stand 29 and a slip clutch 30 which permits the pinion stand to run ahead of the motor 28. The shaft 24 is journaled in bearings 3| on the base I 3. The pinions 26 are elongated to permit lateral adjustment of the housings l4 and IS without disturbing the drive for the cutters l3 and 2|.

An adjusting screw shaft- 32 is journaled in bearings on the base land is adapted to be actuated by a hand wheel 33. The shaft has oppositely threaded portions traversing nuts fixed to the bottom of the housings I4 and I5. On rota- ,tion of the screw shaft 32, the housings move toward or away from each other on rails 34 and 34a carried by the base l3.

Cross rods 35 are slidably supported on opposite sides of the housings l4 and I 5. Bars 36 extending between the rods 35 constitute a guide table for supporting the material indicated at M in its passage through the shear.

Each of the housings l4 and I! also provides bearings for a pair of chopper spindles 31 and 38. Each spindle carries a; cutter holder 39 having cutters 40 secured thereto. The cutters onone spindle cooperate with those on the other to effect a transverse shearing operation. The spindles 3'1 and 38 are geared together by the gears 4|. The spindles 38 carry driving gears 42 which mesh with pinions 43 on a power shaft 44 journaled on the base l3 parallelto the shaft 24. The shaft 44 is driven by a motor 45 through a reduction gear 46. u

Deflecting guides 41 are bolted to the inside of each of the housings 4 and I5. As shown in Figure 4, these guides extend beyond the/point of tangency of the disc cutters l9 and 2| and engage the edges of the advancing material. After the material has passed the cutters l9 and 2|, the sheared-off edge portion thereof follows the guides 41 downwardly and is fed between the spindles 31 and 38. The-trimmed edge ribbon is thus cut into short lengths by the cooperation of the cutters 40 on the spindles, as shown in Figure'2.

The pinch rolls I6 and i1 may be of any suitable construction, such as that illustrated in Figthrough the shear.

ures l and 2. 'The function of the pinch rolls, of course, is to grip the material M and feed it The pinch rolls are driven through flexible joints 43 extending from the pinion stand 29.

The spindles 31 and 33 have their ends-tapered as at 49. The bore of the-holders 33 is similarly tapered, as shown in Figures 6 through 8.' The holders are thus secured to the spindlesby a friction fit. The holders 33 are designed as shown in Figure 7 so that the cutters. are not precisely 'radialbut disposed at a slight angle to a radial plane. Because of the friction fit of the holders on the spindles, and the fact that the former are rotatable on the latter'when the frictional fit is released, the holders may be adjusted angularly relative to the spindles so that the cutters on the two holders will properly cooperate after grinding the surfaces intersecting to form the cutting edge, without the necessity of shimming up the cutters, By tilting the cutters 40 slightly from a radial plane, the necessary clearance at the exposed edge of the cutter is obtained without grinding. At the same time, the symmetry of the section of the cutter is retained sothat four cuttingedges are provided instead of 7 I ters.

This also avoids the expensive grinding of clearance back of the cutting edge, which has usually been necessary heretofore. i

As previously indicated, the apparatus described so far is useful both for trimming the edges 5 of hot rolled strip on its way to the cold mill and the trimming of the edges of the cold rolled strip before it'is sent through the scrubber to the flying shear, which cuts the strip into lengths, and the mandrel is maintained. Regardless of the actual peripheralspeed of the material, however, the pinch rolls i6 and I1 and the cutter discs l9 and 20 2| operate at the same peripheral speed, since they are all driven from a common source, namely, the pinion stand 23 and the motor 28. The slip clutch 30 between the motor and the pinion stand permit the pinch rolls and shear discs to 25 run ahead of the motor 23 as the speed of the material increases without,'however, affecting the relative peripheral speeds of the pinch rolls and shear; discs, which arev always maintained equal.

If the thickness of the material is such that the $0 .torque applied to themandrel i2 will not cause the pinch rolls to run ahead of the motor 23, the latter assumes its normal share of the effort required to feed the material through the shear. As the shearing proceeds,'of course, the edge 36 ribbons are diverted from the path of the'main body of the strip and are chopped into small.

pieces by the cutters". These pieces are incondition for convenient handling preparatory to returning to the open hearth furnace as scrap. 4o

' The operation for finishing edge trimming is about the same as that described above. Usually the load imposed by the material on the shears equal peripheral ,Speeds. Instead of coiling the sheared strip, it may be drawn through the shear by a roller leveler which feeds it to a cutting-up shear.

From the foregoing description, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that my invention provides a strip shear having numerous important advantages. In the first place, the edge ribbons trimmed from the strip are diverted r from the path of the. body portion thereof, and 1 chopped into short lengths for convenient collec- 00 tion and disposal. This is a marked advantage over the previous practice of permitting these ribbons to accumulate on the floor of the mill and obstruct the movements of workmen, as well as create a dangerous hazard by reason of the-0s trimming shears, there is no tendency for the former to pull the strip laterally of the disc cut- The housings carrying the disc cutters, as well as the chopping shears, are easily adjustable, and relation of the two sets of shears is not altered by such adjustment. The adjustment, I

furthermore, does not require any disengagement of the drive for either of the twosets of cutter-f The pinch rolls and edge trimming shears being driven by a common source of power, always operate simultaneously and are designed to have the same peripheral speed to prevent buckling or looping of the material as it passes through the shears. It is obvious that the simple mechanical connection between the pinch rolls and the shears is more desirable than any complicated electrical control system for synchronizing the speeds of the various units could possibly be. The slip clutchbetween the motor and the pinion stand permits the pinch rolls and shears to overrun if the speed of themateriai exceeds the peripheral speed at which the pinch rolls are normally driven by the motor. At the same time, the pinch roll motor carries its proper load in shearing heavy material. The entire apparatus is useful, not only for trimming the rough edges from the hot rolled strip, but also for providing straight edges on the finished cold rolled strip.

While I have described only one modification of my invention, it will be apparent that numerous changes in the structure disclosed may be made without departing v invention or the scope of the appended claims.

1 claim:

1-. In an edge of housings, cooperating disc cutters rotatably mounted in each of said housings, pinch rolls for trom the spirit oi the trimming shear for strip, apair advancing the strip through the shear, and a common drive for the cutters and pinch rolls,

including a prime mover and a slip clutch. 2. A shear comprising a pair of housings, at

least oneof which is adjustable relative to the 5 prising at least a pair of blades mounted for ro- 15 tation about spaced axes whereby to cooperatev in cutting material passing therebetween, at least one of said blades being mounted in a rotatable. sleeve, said sleeve having an axial external slot parallel to the axis of the sleeve for receiving the 20 blade, a side wall of the slot being disposed at a slight angle to a radial plane through the sleeve, whereby to provide the blade in said slot with clearance to pass-the cooperating blade.

4. The apparatus defined by claim 3 charm-'25 terized by said one of said blades being a flat bar having a substantially rectangular sectio ancmnam D. Evans. 

